Citing the negative impact on the ridership of two of the country’s most popular Amtrak intercity passenger rail lines, Director Kempton said Caltrans, the city of Sacramento, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA), and Sacramento Regional Transit worked together to secure the funding.

In addition, Caltrans is committing $100,000 in current fiscal year funds and is pursuing use of a portion of state-owned right-of-way adjacent to the Depot for additional parking.

Construction of Sacramento Regional Transit’s Folsom line light rail extension, which will terminate at the Depot, is impacting both passenger access and the number of parking spaces available, causing significant inconvenience for train riders.

In announcing the funding allocation, Director Kempton commented that, “the extension of the Folsom light rail line into the Depot is the Sacramento region’s number one transportation priority. We are pleased to work with our local partners by providing funding to help mitigate some of the parking problems facing travelers that could not be addressed within the project’s limited budget. Once the extension is completed and operational, on-site parking needs should be reduced, and Sacramento will be one step closer to a truly intermodal gateway to the Capitol City. In the interim, however, we need to make sure this parking situation doesn’t impact existing services any more than necessary.”

The funds will be used to improve the parking entrances and exits, modify bus and auto passenger loading zones, provide additional signage and lighting between the Depot and the “overflow” parking lot at 2nd and “I” Streets, and construct a bus shelter for connecting bus services. The city of Sacramento has already modified striping along 5th Street to provide additional passenger loading and unloading.

“This project is part of the continuing effort to implement improvements for train riders at the Sacramento Depot, which is the busiest station on the 170-mile Capitol Corridor,” said Gene Skoropowski, Managing Director for the CCJPA.

More than 1.1 million passengers used the Sacramento Depot in 2005, making it the second busiest intercity passenger rail terminal in California, surpassed only by the Los Angeles Union Station Passenger Terminal’s 1.6 million passengers. The Depot is served by two state-supported Amtrak services -- the Capitol Corridor, operating between Auburn and San Jose, and the San Joaquin service, operating between Oakland/Sacramento and Bakersfield. The Capital Corridor service is Amtrak’s 3rd busiest corridor, and the San Joaquin Corridor is the country’s 5th busiest train. In addition to the two state-supported services, the Sacramento Depot is also served by Amtrak’s long distance Coast Starlight and California Zephyr services.